Thursday, 31 January 2013

During
night, the wind and the waves had calmed down quite a bit and we enjoyed the
smooth sailing on the Drake Passage again.

The day was busy with bridge visits
and lectures, and in the afternoon, freshly baked hot waffles were served and
we had a charity auction in which we auctioned two items, the ships flag and the
ships master chart of this voyage. The money raised is donated to several nature
conservation organizations that work in the South Polar realm.

At the
Captain´s Cocktail, Captain Arild Hårvik thanked his crew and all the
passengers for the great spirit on board and wished everybody a safe voyage
back home. On our way up the Beagle Channel, a large group of Dusky dolphins
joined the Fram for several hours, leaping out of the water and playing in the
bow wave.

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

A full load of passengers on board Fram is about
230 people. Right now we have 145 guests and Fram is quiet.Peaceful.When you add a rough ride on the Drake,
there are even fewer people up and about.If you have your sea legs it is a very relaxing time.

It can be mesmerizing to watch the breaking seas
and giant Wandering Albatross soaring about.On the other hand, if you forgot to take your motion
sickness meds and you’re prone to sea sickness, then weather like we are having
today is not such a tranquil experience.“Hoo-ray and up she rises, hoo-ray and up she rises...”can have different connotations.

The truth is that Fram is a very stable ship and
while we had seas of four to five metres all day long, it is not a big deal on
Fram.Still, the gym sat empty,
the Jacuzzis were drained, waffles were postponed until tomorrow, the seated
dinner became a buffet, bridge visits were postponed from morning until
afternoon, the elevators decommissioned and access to the outdoors was limited
to deck seven.

Nevertheless, as always on sea days,the lecture series continued at full
throttle with talks scheduled on: Shackleton, The Geology of Antarctica,
Albatross and Petrels, and The History of Whaling.

At 17:00 everyone was invited to join the
Expedition Team in the Observation Lounge for a recap of the voyage.The whole team lined up across the
dance floor and responded to questions ranging from global warming, to landing
procedures, to the stability of Fram in high seas!

As
we cruise steadily northwards the winds and the seas have noticeable
decreased.Now the seas are a
comfortable three to four metres.The forecast for tomorrow?More of the same!

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

After a
partly shaky night we entered into the caldera of the volcanic Deception Island
early in the morning. A spectacularly narrow passage that is further
complicated by an underwater rock called Raven Rock right in the middle of the
entrance.

The
destination for our morning landing was Whalers Bay, where we visited the
remains of the old whaling station Hector and the British Base B that was set
up by the Falkland Island Dependencies Service. The weather was not exactly perfect
– drizzling rain and a bit of wind – but it was still impressive to take a
stroll between the abandoned station buildings and the dismantled blubber
cookers. Hard to imagine that at this lonesome beach, thousands of whales were
processed. Reports of whalers tell that at some time, several hundred flensed
carcasses were floating in the caldera. The smell must have been tremendous!

As the
weather situation outside the sheltered caldera of Deception Island further
deteriorated, we decided to re-schedule our afternoon landing. Instead of
continuing towards Walker Bay at King George Island, we stayed a little longer
at Deception Island and accomplished a landing at Telephone Bay at the far end
of the caldera. We undertook a scenic walk around some crater lakes filled with
turquoise water and up a hill, from where we had a view of the entire inner
part of Deception Island.

In the late
afternoon, provisioned with sea-sickness pills, we sailed out of Deception
Island and headed into the Drake Passage.

Monday, 28 January 2013

Rain was falling as we boarded the Polar Cirkle boats to
go to Port Lockroy this morning at 09:30.But what’s a little rain to adventurous Antarctic explorers such as
ourselves?This drizzle would not
dampen our spirits, it would not stop us from seeing the most visited site in
all of Antarctica and it would most definitely not prevent us from shopping at
the most well supplied gift shop in all of Antarctica.

Port Lockroy is the site of a former British Base and has
been restored as a smallbut
excellent museum. The income from the well-supplied gift shop goes to the
British Antarctic Heritage Trust and amongst other things helps to maintain the
museum.

The Expedition Team helped us up a wet slippery slope
where we were greeted by a large number of penguins.Gentoo Penguins nest all around the museum, gift shop and
living quarters of the few people that inhabit Port Lockroy in the summer.Needless to say, they are very used
to people wandering around.Gentoos seemed to be everywhere.They nest within a metre of the entrance to the museum and penguins
constantly wander about.According
to IAATO regulations we must not approach penguins closer than 5 metres.However the Lockroy penguins brazenly
broke this rule at every opportunity.How wonderful!

After lunch, we once again landed on the actual continent
of Antarctica at Neko Harbour.Neko is the site of another Gentoo colony and there were many penguins
preening themselves on the beach.A short walk took us up from the beach and to the base of the
colony.We had the option of
hiking up a snow and ice field to a lofty lookout point where we had excellent
views of Neko Harbour and the the glacier front.

One of the fun things when hiking in Antarctica is that
sometimes there is an option to slide down the hill that you hiked up.It seemed that most people chose the
sliding option!The Expedition
Team selected an appropriate area for sliding and soon people were zipping down
the hill.Ski-bunda!

By 19:30 the last Polar Cirkel boat had left shore and we
were once again heading further north.As we were exiting Andvord Bay we sighted three Humpback Whales and were
able to observe them near the ship for over forty minutes!

At 22:00 we joined our Philipino crew in the Observation
lounge where they entertained us with singing and dancing.It was a delightful way to end our day.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

At Prospect
Point, the Falkland Islands Dependencies Service operated its Base J in the
years 1957-1959. In this base, mostly topographic and geological research was
carried out. Since, the station building has decayed and its remnants were
finally removed in 2004 by the British Antarctic Survey. So today, only the
fundaments remain. After a visit to this historic site, we went on a glacier
walk. In rope teams lead by one guide, we ascended the glacier to a crevasse
that was safe to approach. The crevasse was glooming blue and its walls were
nicely decorated with icicles.

In the
early afternoon, the Fram was sailing past the Argentine Islands, and several
humpback whales greeted us along the way, waving with their tails.

As a special
treat in the lecturing programme on board, one of our guests, the famous
Brazilian Antarctic explorer Amyr Klink,
gave a report of his endeavors, among them rowing across the Atlantic Ocean and
sailing around Antarctica. Fascinating to listen to a man with such exciting
experiences!

As a
further highlight of the day, some of the guests went out for a long ice
cruise, both to the iceberg alley at Pléneau Island, and further through the
Lemaire Channel. In the shallow waters around Pléneau, a lot of icebergs get
stranded and stay. Their shapes and colors are just amazing. The wind picked up
as the Polar Cirkle boats entered the Lemaire Channel, and the boat ride became
a rather bumpy and very wet enterprise. Nevertheless it was an exciting and
real Antarctic experience, and we got rewarded by three humpback whales that
came really close. Seeing them from a small boat directly at the level of the
water surface gives an even better impression of the huge body size of this
majestic animals!

Saturday, 26 January 2013

This morning at about 07:30 we crossed the Antarctic
Circle.How exotic and romantic
does that sound? The Antarctic Circle!Crossing the Antarctic Circle is the stuff of which documentaries and
dreams are made.It’s not
something that one does one’s self is it?You read about other people doing it but today we joined an elite group
of explorers and adventurers.We
are now proud members of an exclusive club and we even have a certificate to
prove it!!

At about 10:00 we started our landing at Detaille Island
which was a British Base called Base W and was in operation from February 21st
1956 until March 31st 1959.Recently the British Antarctic Heritage Trust has been doing some
renovations to the interior and exterior of the main building.

We were fortunate to have blue skies once again this
morning which presented ideal conditions for an Antarctic plunge.49 people took the opportunity to go
for a quick dip south of the circle.After all, when will you ever again in your life have the chance to go
for a swim... ahem, dip, so far south?Probably never.

We wrapped up our landing at Detaille at 13:30 and headed
further south in the hopes of being able to reach the Gullet.At 15:00 it became apparent that the
ice was too thick for us to make any more southerly progress.It was decided that we should have a
group photo on deck five to commemorate our crossing of the circle and our
furthest point south.It was only
when we we were out on deck that we realized that we had a special
visitor.It was none other than
HRH King Neptune.

King Neptune
was collecting payment for us crossing the Antarctic Circle.Anyone willing to pay the sacrifice had
icy water poured down the back of their neck.The consolation was a shot of rum right after!Surprisingly there was a lineup of
eager (crazy!) people anxious to have ice water dumped on them.Or was it the Rum they were after?The last person to be baptized was Rochel from the crew.Actually she wasn’t in line.She got dragged over!

We then turned to the north in search of a suitable
location to go for a cruise in the Polar Cirkel boats.There was a magnificent ice berg very
close to Detaille Island.Truly
this iceberg was a marvel.It was
worth launching the Polar Cirkel boats so that everyone could get a closer
look.

Now it is
20:00 and we are making our way north once again.Tomorrow’s plan is to attempt a landing at the Fish Islands.

Friday, 25 January 2013

Travelling to remote places also means that sometimes we are out of touch with the outside world...It is only the ship, the activities, the scenery that take over life on board... We did not had the world best`s internet connection lately as we want to show you pictures as well but hope that we are able to update you now again! Sorry for the wait- and thanks for the patience! And now... enjoy

There was
hardly any time for breakfast this morning. Waking up in the scenic Neumeyer
Channel we continued through the even narrower Lemaire Channel. A lot of ice
floes lined our way, and the blue sky, steep mountains and glaciers were mirrored
in the cold steel blue water.

We were
headed for our morning landing at Petermann Island. The Gentoo penguin chicks
there are already almost as big as their parents, and their fat bellies clearly
demonstrated that they have been doing very well this year. The cliff at the northern
edge of the colony is the place where the blue-eyed shags breed and their
chicks are also notoriously hungry. Their parents were industrious going back
and forth to the sea and on every return, greedy quarreling broke out between
the three to four siblings in each nest.

A view
point at the far end of Petermann Island further offered a splendid view of the
surroundings, with the FRAM in front of snow-covered mountains on one side and
a bay filled with icebergs of all shapes and shades of blue on the other side.

Humpback
whales accompanied us on our way to our afternoon landing site, the Ukrainian
research base Vernadsky. Still miraculously under blue skies we cruised through
the narrow channels in between the Argentine Islands up to the base, where we
were shown around the building by the resident researchers. The landing was
rounded off by a visit to historic Wordie House, the old and abandoned British
station building on the neighboring Winter Island. The hill behind Wordie House
offered a fantastic 360° panoramic view of the ice-filled Argentine Islands
archipelago, and even some breaching humpback whales!

Thursday, 24 January 2013

One of the reasons people come to Antarctica is to
see and to experience ice and that was exactly what today was all about.As we have mentioned several times in
this blog, the Weddell Sea has largely been impassable for Expedition Cruise
ships this season.As we pass the
zenith of summer, the extent of the ice is diminishing.We could see on our satellite ice
charts that at the very least, we would be able to experience giant tabular
icebergs up close and we would be able to patrol the edge of the sea ice pack.

There was lots of blue sky and sunshine early this
morning.And as expected, there
was lots of ice!Instead of doing
a landing today we opted to drop the Polar Cirkle boats and go cruising in the
heavy sea ice and have a close up view of tabular bergs from sea level.There is nothing quite like cruising
through heavy ice in a small boat.It is really a fun and thrilling experience.

We were also hoping to be able to find seals
lounging on ice floes and as luck would have it we found several Crabeater
Seals and two or three Weddell Seals.Speaking of luck: a few people got to see a juvenile Emperor
Penguin!!The northernmost Emperor
Colony is less than 100 kms from where we were cruising but it was still an
incredible stroke of luck to see a lone juvenile Emperor Penguin on an ice
floe!

We wrapped up the cruising around noon.Many people said it was there favourite
thing to do so far and if given the choice, they would love to do even more
Polar Cirkle boat cruising!

The rest of the day was full speed ahead.We had a lot of miles to cover in order
to reach Peterman Island tomorrow morning.As we headed south the skies quickly closed in, the sea
picked up and it began to snow.What a transformation from our fantastic weather this morning.

In the afternoon the Polhogda and Framheim lecture
halls were full as we once again picked up with our lecture series.

At
21:45 we met in the observation Lounge for a fashion show of the merchandise in
the onboard gift shop.And who
were the models?None other than
the entire Expedition Team and the officers of the ship!

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

The views
out of the windows from the breakfast table were stunning: Over night, we had
sailed into the Antarctic Sound, also called “Iceberg Alley”. Large grounded
tabular icebergs lined our way into Hope Bay on the Southern side of the Sound.

This is where the Argentine Esperanza Station is situated. A large leopard seal
welcomed us at the beach, and in small groups, we were guided through the
station. Actually, the station resembles a small town. Everything is there, a community
center for social activities, a school, a church, a museum, all kinds of
workshops and laboratories…

Brown
Bluff, our afternoon landing site is situated nearby. The name comes from the
brown volcanic deposits in the cliff that forms the picturesque background of
one of the largest Adelie penguin colonies in Antarctica. The colony was
teeming with half-grown penguin chicks. It was a great place for us to observe
the behavior of the penguin chicks begging for food from the adults who
returned from the sea with their fill of krill. Also a lot of stone thieves
were lurking among the penguins. They were picking up pebbles from unattended
nests to add them to their own nest.

The glacier
moraine to the side of the colony was a great viewpoint to oversee the
ice-filled bay, and we even accomplished guided tours on the nearby glacier
with our experienced glacier guides.

After
dinner we got a very special dessert. A pod of Orcas visited the ship and we
enjoyed their company for more than half an hour. They slowly moved along the
ice edge, and we could nicely see the hook-shaped dorsal fins of the females as
well as the long sword-shape dorsals of the males.

MV FRAM is the most modern expedition cruise vessel belonging to the Hurtigrutenfleet, roaming polar waters and taking people to remote places where only few go. In order to give you the chance to travel with us, even if only on your computer screen, we have created this blog. Here you can see what we have seen and read what we have done.

MV FRAM's voyage is followed by

About

The expedition team consists of lecturers and guides from various fields and backgrounds such as ornithology, mammalogy, history, and geology, ready to tackle all your questions. Together with the fabulous Fram officers and crew we make your time on board REALLY worthwhile!